Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Attacking innocent Kentuckians' right to bear arms is the standard politician's answer to inner city crime and violence, but it doesn't work, 30th district House candidate Waymen Eddings said.

"My opponent, Rep. Tom Burch, has a 21% rating from the National Rifle Association, but his being an opponent of self-defense rights has not made anyone safer and only makes crime worse," Eddings said. "Working to improve public safety while also protecting individual rights will always be my top priority."

"Criminals are not known to comply with KRS statutes so then my opponent's approach simply imposes even more restrictions on my law abiding neighbors in Louisville. Gun control is a bureaucratic gesture, not a solution. So, I intend on engaging the community to find the true answers. These answers will be responsive to the unique dynamics of violent conflict in an urban environment while not penalizing the lawful citizen for the actions of the criminal element."

Monday, January 25, 2016

Gov. Matt Bevin has said many times he supports using tort reform to lower healthcare costs, but if you want evidence that limiting medical malpractice jury awards does that, prepare to be disappointed. Such evidence just doesn't exist.

"Tort reform is politician-speak for 'I don't know what to do, let's just kill some lawyers,'" Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "It's a well-worn Republican buzzword, but tort reform not only runs afoul of the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Section 7 of the Kentucky Constitution, it simply fails to deliver what its advocates promise. In fact, as ObamaCare blew up healthcare for everyone while trying to fix it for a few, tort reform threatens to do the same thing to a citizen's right to seek redress in court."

"Gov. Bevin should speak clearly about his vision of tort reform without delay and that includes the bad idea in the legislature to force injured parties to go before a medical review panel in Senate Bill 6, which will only hurt consumers."

Friday, January 22, 2016

The editorial page of the New York Times ran an odd article trying to persuade Gov. Matt Bevin to give up his top campaign promise of reversing Kentucky's illegal adventure in ObamaCare implementation by demanding we return $290 million in federal ObamaCare grants. The Times is as ignorant of basic accounting as they are of their precious ObamaCare law and Kentucky's experience with it.

"Gov. Bevin has already documented we spent $58,341,000 in federal funds on our ObamaCare exchange last year when we weren't supposed to have any according to the law and in excess of the $19,916,000 we supposedly had left over from Obama's $253 million in establishment grants, so if they now want back all the establishment grants for the failed exchange which no one else has had to return and the law doesn't require returning plus $38,398,000 the law specifically prohibits the feds from sending to us, the response they deserve is to drop dead," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

The Associated Press ran a silly article over the weekend claiming the defunct Kentucky Health Cooperative is "selling assets" to "satisfy its debts." The AP should make clear, but doesn't, that the only debts that will be satisfied are federal loans and Kentuckians' unpaid claims don't make the cut.

The Cooperative reported $176.2 million in losses in 2014 alone, before losing even more money in 2015. It was created and maintained with $123.8 million in federal loans. That means unless they bought a bunch of office furniture which is now somehow worth more than $50 million more than they paid for it, any remaining unpaid claims cannot possibly be paid by "selling assets."

"If Kentucky officials had listened to me last summer, they could have ended the Cooperative charade before any more innocent Kentuckians were harmed by this ObamaCare nonsense," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Buying ObamaCare insurance remains a crapshoot and is not worth the risk."

Friday, January 15, 2016

Frankfort Corruptocrats claim now the cost to shut down the state ObamaCare creation "Kynect" bureaucracy -- and web site! -- will cost $23 million and say this is why we should not cut the cord. Fortunately, we have learned Kynect's Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange busted it's budget last year alone by $27 million.

"Obamacrats -- or whatever they are calling themselves these days -- continue to depend on the media not telling you both sides of the story and this is a perfect example of the disconnect between their government takeover fantasies and the people they need to fool," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "If we take their numbers at face value, it looks like we save four million the first year and about a quarter billion in the first decade without Kynect."

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

America's labor participation rate is now as low as it was in the worst of Jimmy Carter's malaise and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid wants to pin that on Rand Paul's effort to audit the Federal Reserve Bank.

"Republicans have been trying to undermine the Federal Reserve mandate to strive for full employment," Reid said today after leading the effort to defeat Sen. Paul's bill which would have brought needed oversight to Fed activities.

The Federal Reserve operates under two main congressional mandates, maximizing employment and maintaining stable prices. It is not particularly good at either, but the idea that monetary policy can or even should be charged with creating jobs is absurd.

"Big Government types in Washington D.C. melt when you throw water on them and Rand Paul soaks them every time they cackle," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said.

Elizabethtown Rep. Tim Moore filed HB 221 yesterday to allow concealed carry permit holders to be armed on public school property in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The bill would also allow concealed carry permit holders to carry weapons into state and local government facilities except courtrooms and detention centers and to carry into meetings of the General Assembly.

The same people who are losing their minds over ObamaCare melting down will lose their minds over this. Good.

"Gun free zones are not consistent with the need to protect our children in the real world because every loose nut knows when they see that sign they will meet next to no resistance," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Our schools and government buildings are infested enough with leftist ideology but now Kentuckians are ready to start pushing back hard."

Monday, January 11, 2016

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin's administration's latest financial report divulged without comment that former Governor Steve Beshear's last fiscal year in office featured nearly twice as much spending as budgeted to keep his very controversial ObamaCare bureaucracy afloat.

Despite his illegal creation of the exchange and the legislature explicitly forbidding him from spending state funds on the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange and refusing his attempt to create a tax to fund it, Beshear said he would run the exchange on less than $33,937,400. According to information compiled by Bevin, Beshear spent $60,524,000, which is 78 percent above the budgeted amount.

This same report also showed Beshear's falsely claimed budget surplus was actually a deficit of $603 million.

"This is another Obama fraud which shouldn't have been possible," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "Federal funds for state-run exchanges dried up in 2014 and were not legally permitted past then under the ACA. Gov. Bevin can end this charade by shutting down the Kentucky exchange without further delay."

Bevin is currently a defendant in a Court of Appeals case, 13-CA-1590, which would force the exchange to be disbanded.

Kentucky's General Assembly should move quickly to start dismantling the Common Core scheme here without further delay.

"One of the big lies out of Frankfort is that Senate Bill 1 of 2009 mandated acceptance of Common Core, but if you read the bill you know that isn't true," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "We need to put this embarrassing chapter behind us now, before it gets any worse."

Friday, January 01, 2016

If you need to pull up Kentucky's ObamaCare web site today to buy health insurance, you are out of luck.

And, of course, since it's a holiday the advice to call customer service is no good either.

"Kentucky's disastrous dalliance with ObamaCare can't end soon enough," Kentucky Progress publisher David Adams said. "The only voices they have left are Steve Beshear on his Twitter page and Greg Stumbo barking about elephants in Bethlehem. Let's put them out of our misery soon, please."